Filing system.



E. A. DUNN. FILING SYSTEM. APPLIGATION'PILBD Nov. 2 3

Patented Sept. 5, 1911.

NSM@

wehe? yTo'elz 'ihofiit may concern: Be it lmovvnthat LEDWAnD A. Duim, of

'Newtom in' the county of Middlesex and State of h -Iassachusettghaveinvented certain new and'useful'lmprovements'in Filing numericalsub-divisions, Aand the y,inver-ition 'relates especially' vtolimprovenients t in systems which employ a series of cards desig`natedfby alphabetical sub-divisions, .each of f lWhich `sub-divisions`has' also-a4 distinct numberofv itsown.

A'particular object [of the invention is to .provide a card, index orilingsystem of thisv character ivhefreini the projections or tabs of themembers are so arranged and marked relativelyI to t each.. otherl y asto facilitate vproper filing, and thedetection of mis-placed' matter.

urther'object's of the invention are to provide such an v,index whichWill reduce labor costs by increasing the facility 'of use; to providean index Whichis expansive to avoidnecessity` forrevising the index fromtime to time; to provide an index `Which -Will `enable surnamestobejsulo-divided by Christian names, thus facilitating reference andposting especially Where surnames are common; andrto` provide an index`having lsub-divisions that may be used in commonin diiferentdepartmentsof a business.

System substantially as herein- `-afte desc ibed and claimed.

, ao .,'thf accompanying drawings*Figure l' lisa front. elevation of asufficient number of a set of members to illustrate my inven,

v tion, Figs. 2 and?) are'V Vfront elevations of Vtwo cards which maybeused TWith the guide members shown in Fig. 1.

The complete system includes, of course,

4si'ifllicient members tol cover the entire alphal bet, 'and saidmemberswill-usually be arranged in boxes or drawers `suflicient in.

-mim'berto accommodate 1the entire seti -And f ct'ni'rsethealphabet maybe divided as extensively as required by the demands of visions -offtheentire alphabet; for instance,

i i Specification of Letters-Patent Application flied Nbve'mberlaa,i910.- yserial No. 593,853.

of which" the following is a Speciraeeted sept; 5; 191i;

two sub-divisions 'of A, three lof -B two of C etc.; as indicated byfthe printing of the veld or index a of the front 'guide card a inFig.` 1. Obviously, this selectionnof the number of sub-divisions of thecomplete alphabet is arbitrary, "and may be ymore eX- tensive, orsmaller. For`,'convenience'of de- .sc ription, vand not Withzlimitingeffectthis will be hereinafter referred to as the majr sub-division ofthe alphabet, to disti`nguish it from the further, -or minor,sub-division of each of the majoiifsubdivisions," aecording to Christian"or firmV names asr hereinafter described. rI he major sub-divisionsareiiumbered consecutively, as "1 4to 110,' s o that each suchsub-division is lnumericallyl individualized4 as explained in myapplication 553,537, filed April 5,1910, andsaid lsub-divisions are`used for surnameswso vthat the V'name Berger, forl instance-,Would belmoivn to Y belong in division "B'e which is `iiidiyidual- Y ized bythenu1neral,4. I A further `subdividing by Christianor names is providedfor by a separate set Whichpreferably comprises ten guide-cards b for.dividing the alphabet into .ten subdivisionsfherein re- 4ferred'to 4asthe minor subdivisins. Each major guide card a preferably bears printedfields or indexes a c2 which, forftliersake of brevity, Will behereinafterreferred toas the major and minor indexesrespectively,l Butfor some purposes it Willbe suflicient to have these indexes -on onlyoccasional guidecards,

or even todispens'e entirely 4with s uchlprin't- Td these ends theinvention consists inthe f I card inde ing on the guide cardsthemselves, using insteada card orsheet in a location convenient a tothe system, suchjcardl or sheetbearing the 0 to f 9 for use'inconnection with lChristian and firm' names as 4claimed -in myapplication 570,276, filed `July 5,.; l9l0r-fz The object' of employingtenV4 sub-'divisions the minor field azis to provide for expansion' ofthis feature of the systembypreziing surname numerals from the f majorindex to either one o'f thel tensub-divisions shown, if

desired,fg.and I:especially "to prevent-,duplication of numbersWhenthenumerals of the major index are prefixed to theV numeralssub-divisions and their individual numerals, there being preferablyten-'of them numbered I of the .minor index as described. For instance,Iif there were 12 sub-divisions in the minor set illustrated, there wouldthen be a 50 and a 51 of divisont Be4 lapping over into the nextdivision .'Br v Whether the indexes are lborne by the cards a, bthemselves, or by 'a vseparate card or sheet, there will be one card afor each major sub-division, and it is provided wlth a projection or taba3 bearing an alphabetical sub-division and 'its numeral. words, .therelare as many cards a as there are major subsvisions. And in theembodiment of the invention illustrated, there' are ten cards b for eachmajor sub-division, said cards b having prlojections or tags'b, eachbearing one of the minor alphabetical sub-divisions and its appropriatenumeral. To make the .complete system clear, it wlll be stated thatthere are, in the particular arrangement, a fragment of which isillustrated, forty cards a, and ten times as many cards b, because thereare ten cards b for each major sub-division. Fig. 1 simply shows thecards belonging to major sub-d1- vision Be4, and the first Card a of thenext major sub-division vBr5.

The ltabs bf bear alphabetical sub-divisions correspondingwith those ofthe minor index a2 and also bear the same corresponding numerals, thenumerals preferably following the alphabetical sub-divisions on saidtabs, although the numerals might precede lthe let-ters. The reasons forthis arrangement are that the major guide cards a names. For instance,any surname, the first two letters of which consist of Be up to,

but not including Br would belong beyond the front card shown in Fig. 1.

The minor guide cards b may be referred to as Christian and firm nameguides, because they are employed to sub-divide according to Christiannames or firm names. Said minor guide cards Z) have their tabs b inassorted positions, by wh'icli I mean that said tabs b are in lateralstepped positions. There are ten cards in each set of units b', and allof the sets of units b are alike in configuration and in thecharacterizations of their tabs.

As indicated in Fig. 2; any card c which is to be known by the name of acertain person, has applied thereto numerals taken from both the majorand minor indexes 'a' a2. The name James-Berger `receives the number 46,because the Be of the surname denotes that it belongs in the majordivision 4, while the Christian name James shows that it falls insub-division to be given theiieral 4 from the major index a', becausethe Bi falls between In other' Be 'and Br ,*the c of the name Charlesgives the 'car-drthenurneral 2 from the minor index a2.

' In substantially the center of Fig. 1, there;

is shown the tab of a guide bearing .the name B'en'nett This is merelyone of common names. It might be Smith or Brown or Jones, but the nameBennett isA selected for illustration, because it would necessarily havethe same numerical indica-v tion 4 as the front card shown in Fig. 1. Inthe system, sufficient cards a are furlquite `a number of very welllknown, and

nished with the tabs left blank.. Then if `the list'of-names growsso astoinclude a. large number of B'ennetts, a card a is taken. and the nameBennett written on its tab as also the numeral 4. Then a set of minorguide cards` b may be employed behind .the

major card bearing the name Bennett so as to sub-divide thename'IBennett according to Christian 4or firm names. `This dispo'ses ofwhat are termed common names.

The cards used for thesefcommon names or while still employing the sameguide arrangement which facilitates both reference and posting. Ofcourse such cards as that marked .4 Bennett 4, enables any common nameto be divided ten times by Christian names. It may be explained herethat the minor cards having the tabs bearing &O are employed for firm orcorporation names or any miscellaneous names'.

I prefer that the cards b shall bear' the same index fields as thoseshown at a' a on the major guide cards, but do not limit myself,thereto.

By positioning the tabs of the major or surname guide cards a at, ornearthe midlength of the cards, the several tabs a3 will always bespaced by the minor cards b, so

that levery projection or tab a? is visible even before any cards areinserted in the file. And since the tabs or projections b of the' minorguide cards are in assorted or lateral stepped positions from theextremeleft to the extreme right, it necessarily fol- 'lows that in thecomplete 4system the pro- 5120 jections or tabs a3 can never be-close toany of the proJectlons or tabs b so as to unduly conceal the latter. Inthe complete system, the 40 major guide cards a (or the 80 or-

